ASHRAE Receives 16 Nominations for New Faces of Engineering

ASHRAE received 16 nominations for this year's New Faces program, created to promote the accomplishments of young engineers by highlighting their engineering contributions and the resulting impact on public welfare. The program targets those age 30 and younger.

Later this month, ASHRAE will select its top individual and four other nominees and submit those to the National Engineers Week Committee. Information about the five will be posted on ASHRAE.org and published in ASHRAE Insights in January.

The top nominees from each engineering society represented on the National Engineers Week committee will appear in USA Today during National Engineers Week, Feb. 17-23, 2008. ASHRAE’s top New Face will be posted on ASHRAE.org during that week.

The nominees are: 

Nominee:  Rachael Aleksic, P.E.

Employer: Burgess and Niple, Columbus, Ohio.

Education: bachelor of mechanical engineering, University of Dayton, Ohio.

Notable accomplishments:  Aleksic has served more than 1,000 retail businesses and corporate clients through the design of cost-effective, forward-thinking HVAC solutions. As project manager and design engineer, she designs systems for educational facilities, malls, high-rise buildings and urban redevelopment programs. Her HVAC design for Ohio University’s integrated learning and research facility extends beyond traditional systems. The fume hood exhaust system helps prevent the escape of hazardous chemicals and biological agents from a biosafety level 2 lab into generally populated areas. She led the mechanical design for Marietta College’s new learning and library resource center. The system precisely controls conditions in the special collections room where rare documents and archived materials are housed. For municipal wastewater treatment facilities, Aleksic has designed mechanical systems that mitigate noxious gases and withstand the highly corrosive environment.

Employer: project manager, EMO Energy Solutions, Falls Church, Va.

Education: bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Notable accomplishments:  Babcock is responsible for managing and conducting new building sustainable design evaluations, energy efficiency projects, energy auditing  projects, facility energy end-use characterizations, daylighting design, life-cycle cost analysis, energy code compliance, measurement and verification plans, and utility assessments. He has extensive experience in developing and managing whole building hourly energy simulations (more than 130 total) across all building sectors and sizes, ranging from small town halls to multi-million square foot facilities. Babcock is ultimately responsible for managing client relationships, task scheduling, design meetings and deliverables upward of 30 projects at a time. He has supported several green building programs and federal and state energy initiatives. His ultimate goal is to reduce the country’s demand for energy through cost-effective strategies while saving as many BTUs as possible.

Employer: inside sales support, Slade Ross, Tampa, Fla.

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.

Notable accomplishments:  While providing support to the outside sales team with equipment selections and submittals, Cox also has coordinated with design professionals and contractors. He has collaborated on two U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design projects. During his three years with the company, Cox has worked on projects using both chilled water and complex direct expansion systems. He currently is learning about leading technologies, including variable speed pumping, energy recovery, dedicated outside air systems, control and variable refrigerant floor systems. His projects include the Marco Island Marriott where 341 fan coil units and factory installed DDC controls had to be tied into the main hotel, the Marion County Middle School which used energy recovery and dedicated outside air units and compliance with ASHRAE Standards 62 and 90.1, and  the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Resort in Tampa, Fla., which incorporates energy efficient equipment while handling the large amounts of ventilation -- 40,000 cfm of energy recovery units to pre-condition 160,000 cfm of outside air. 

Employer: senior energy analyst, Glumac, Portland, Oreg.

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, University of Portland, Portland, Oreg.

Notable accomplishments: Dec has provided leadership and engineering design assistance through energy analysis and modeling on more than 25 projects. Most of these have been awarded or are seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. His achievements go beyond recommending energy efficient options and providing client results. He has stepped up to troubleshoot operations problems for clients, create innovative ways to apportion energy use among tenants and collaborate with architects to optimize building designs for natural ventilation, solar access and minimized energy use.

Nominee:  Keith Dennis

Employer: The Cadmus Group, Arlington, Va.

Education: bachelor of arts, engineering science modified with environmental science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.; bachelor of engineering, engineering Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, N.H.; master of engineering management, engineering/business, Thayer School of Engineering; master of studies in environmental law, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, Vt.

Notable accomplishments: Dennis chose engineering to help tackle the challenges associated with climate change, indoor environmental air quality and sustainable building design and operation. His focus is primarily is promoting and implementing energy efficiency measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. He has worked with school districts, higher education institutions, and local and state governments as well as the federal government to implement large-scale energy management projects. He currently manages the Southeast Rebuild Collaborative, a joint effort of five southeastern state energy offices that provide energy efficiency support to organizations to help save energy and money and to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. As an engineer with an interest in public health, Dennis has worked on several projects for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, helping develop technical guidance documents to assist designers, builders and operations and maintenance staff avoid or remediate problems related to moisture control, radon gas exposure, indoor air quality and energy waste.

Employer: design engineer, Kinetics Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Notable accomplishments: Through his work with noise and vibration control systems, Ghazi has helped improve the quality of buildings. Seismic restraint systems are needed in the Middle East to avoid the side effects of earthquakes. Given that the much of the Middle East is included in international seismic zones, Ghazi and others in the vibration control field are working to design suitable systems to reduce the impact of earthquakes on building mechanical systems. He currently is working with his company’s noise control team to address issues with applied solutions so standardized guidance can be created for specification of correct restraints for products.

Employer:  mechanical engineer, physical facilities, Binghamton University.

Education: associate of applied science, engineering science, Canton College of Technology; bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, Binghamton University

Notable accomplishments: During his five years at Binghamton University, Gilbert has worked on numerous projects, ranging from simple office modifications to rehab of a $15 million state-of-the-art research facility there. The project entailed converting a 120,000 square foot office building to a 50 percent laboratory space.  He explored new HVAC systems and developed schematic designs for each of the new HVAC systems (AHUs, heating water, cooling water, duct systems, and piping systems), creating the designs, including the laboratory exhaust duct layout and exhaust fan (EF) locations for 3 new EFs totaling more than 90,000 CFM, and determining the calculations for several factors. Part of his job also includes teaching interns about working in the HVAC field. He also teaches a course on special topics in HVAC to senior mechanical engineering students.

Employer:   research engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash.

Education: bachelor of science and master of science, HVAC engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; doctorate, architectural engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa.

Notable accomplishments: As one of the energy efficiency practioners at the lab, Jiang’s research focuses on analyzing building energy systems to maximize energy savings. She works with government agencies and the building industry to develop innovative energy efficiency technologies and energy conservation standards for buildings and commercial HVAC equipment. She was the chief analyst in developing ASHRAE’s Advanced Energy Design Guide for Warehouses, which achieves 30 percent energy savings beyond Standard 90.1-1999, thus contributing significantly to the Department of Energy’s net-zero energy buildings goal by 2025. She also has been instrumental in developing federal energy conservation standards that set minimum energy efficiency requirements for commercial refrigeration equipment and packaged terminal air conditioners and heat pumps. Jiang also has contributed to research and demonstration of energy-efficiency technologies in buildings. She successfully led the energy savings measures and cost-effective analyses for duct-sealant technology demonstrations at several U.S. Navy bases. Currently, she is conducting research on efficient low-lift base load cooling equipment, which uses much less energy and provides better thermal comfort than conventional air-conditioning systems. She also helped local consulting companies optimize their energy system design and develop future technical capabilities. 

Employer: energy engineer, Arup North America, Los Angeles, Calif.

Education: bachelor of science and master of science, architectural engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.

Notable accomplishments: Landreth has been involved in many projects ranging from energy efficiency audits for single buildings to campus-wide energy and sustainability master planning. His experience in energy modeling, natural resource conservation, sustainability master planning, carbon foot-printing and economic analysis provides him with a solid background for tackling some of the industry’s most complex problems in sustainable energy.  He has performed energy audits totaling more than five million square feet and has provided energy efficiency recommendations to public and private clients resulting in: cost savings of more than $1.5 million/year, electricity savings of nearly 15 million kWh/year, natural gas savings of over 300,000 therms/year and CO2 emission reductions of more than 10,000 tons/year.

Employer: mechanical designer, CDi Engineers, Lynwood, Wash.

Education: associate of science, electronic systems technology, Community College of the Air Force; bachelor of science, mechanical engineering with a concentration on energy and environment, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.

Notable accomplishments: Contributing to a sustainable future is McClanathan’s passion, using technologies to reduce energy use, reduce carbon footprints and combat global warming. As such, he has mastered design tools such as computational fluid dynamics, energy modeling and building information modeling software. He was involved in the design of four projects to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification (two office buildings, a university library and a hospital). He is learning energy reducing technologies including chilled beams, displacement ventilation, trombe wall design, natural ventilation and onsite water treatment. He is researching technologies including carbon neutral buildings, combined heat and power, biofuels, micro-hydro, composting toilets and net-zero water consumption. For a new library addition for Seattle University in Washington State, he recommended design of an underfloor air distribution system throughout the new addition, with chilled beams used in the high-density load areas.  Also, he was involved in the energy-efficient HVAC design of the new Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington. Through energy modeling, he evaluated the validity of innovative systems such as chilled beams, natural ventilation, and ground source heat pumps. Also, he spent more than 100 hours to provide detailed documentation of mechanical components to assist Microsoft Corporation in qualifying one of their high-tech office buildings in Redmond, Washington, for LEED Gold certification.

Employer: mechanical designer, Taylor Engineering, Alameda, Calif.

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.; master of science, building technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Notable accomplishments: McGuire’s projects include variable-air-volume retrofits of two chemistry labs at Stanford University, which markedly reduced building energy consumption by more than 50 percent. She is currently designing lab retrofits for an additional 250,000 square feet. She also designed an underfloor air distribution HVAC system serving a library slated for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. Using energy modeling and shading studies, McGuire worked with the architect to determine the optimal building shading strategy.  Energy models predict an energy savings of more than 15% over California’s Title 24 energy standard. McGuire also developed a spreadsheet for sizing piping optimized to balance life-cycle energy and first costs. This tool automatically determines pipe sizes on a life cycle cost basis, balancing first costs and future energy costs.  At the same time the program accurately calculates pump head.  She serves on the committee writing Standard 189.1P, Standard for the Design of High Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Riser Residential. Through this committee, she has advanced aggressive energy and indoor environmental quality targets.

Employer: associate, E&C Engineers and Consultants, Houston, Texas

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

Notable accomplishments: Millican’s design experience includes health care, research laboratories, education facilities, office buildings and central plants. His favorite project was a raised floor air-conditioning system that he designed for the Texas Children’s Hospital. His design eliminated overhead ductwork, significantly reducing mechanical costs for future renovations. This will save the client money over time while increasing the flexibility of their space. Another project was design of an energy recovery system for the Sam Houston State University Forensics and Chemistry Building. This system lowers operating costs by reducing the amount of cooling required within labs, while also reducing energy consumption due to high ventilation rates that are required within the labs for chemical fume control. For the Keith-Wiess Geological Lab at Rice University, Millican also worked to upgrade a 50-year-old building to support the newest geology research techniques and associated equipment.

Employer: mechanical engineer, Arup North America, Los Angeles, Calif.

Education: bachelor of engineering, mechanical engineering and professional designation in business, American University of Beirut, Lebanon and University of California, Los Angeles

Notable accomplishments: Nassar’s favorite part of his job is helping architects turn their concepts into reality. He provides diagrammatic designs and implementation documents for high efficiency buildings. He provided schematic utilities layout for a city-scale development in Dubai and investigated the feasibility and applicability of renewable technologies to the site, including solar desalinization. He provided feasibility analysis of renewable and energy efficient technologies for a 40,000 square foot residence, which featured an art gallery with temperature and humidity control. Technologies evaluated included solar electricity, solar cooling and heating, microturbins and thermal storage. The analysis provided the client with a number of sustainable and energy efficient options and a detailed life-cycle cost analysis. Nassar has audited university campus buildings to identify energy conservation measures for multiple sites. He developed, modeled and analyzed potential measures for feasibility and applicability and developed documents for implementation of the measures, resulting in substantial energy and cost savings.

Nominee:  Matthew Rowe

Employer: sales engineer, Johnson Controls, Raleigh, N.C.

Education: bachelor of science, mechanical engineering, minor in graphics communications, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.

Notable accomplishments: Rowe has managed and sold over $7 million in projects during his first three years with Johnsons. He is most proud of a small project involving a community school in need of new HVAC equipment. He designed a system that used an air-cooled variable speed drive chiller, saving the school $4,400 a year in energy costs. This allowed the small school to afford more books and better resources for students.

Employer: assistant professor, mechanical engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Education: bachelor of science, architectural engineering with a minor in music, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.; doctorate in architectural engineering, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Omaha, Neb.; postdoctoral, Goteborg University Sahlgrenska Academy of Medicine, Goteburg, Sweden

Notable accomplishments: A central theme in Ryherd’s research is improving the acoustical environment in which society lives and works. Her research ranges from the effects of hospital noise on staff and patients to the impact of HVAC noise on worker productivity. She currently is collaborating with engineering and medical specialists from the U.S. and Sweden to research hospital noise. They are studying how modifications to the hospital sound environment can improve the health of occupants. Her work is gaining worldwide recognition for being an innovative, interdisciplinary approach that will have resonating effects on the noise control methods implemented in healthcare facilities.

Employer: assistant professor, mechanical and energy engineering, University of North Texas, Denton

Education: bachelors of science, mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering, University of California, Irvine; master of engineering, aerospace engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; master of science, mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; doctorate in mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Notable accomplishments: Traum’s expertise is heat- and mass-transfer enabled by water vapor diffusion through nano-pores. His accomplishments include inventing apparatuses that simultaneously measure heat transfer and water vapor permeability through nano-structured membranes with pores ranging from 10,000 to below 10 nanometers in diameter. He co-developed a new engineering correlation relating boundary layer mass transport resistance to that within membrane pores. He used this theory to design new techniques to quantify water vapor diffusion coefficients through nano-structured porous materials with only two temperature measurements. These achievements are significant for two reasons. First water vapor transport through barriers is critical to human comfort in environments where isolation is necessary. For example, Traum’s research informs self-cooling chemical-biological suit design for soldiers in Iraq and for police and firefighters at home. Second, future devices incorporating nano-scale components must be robust against atmospheric water vapor. His research guides thermal management of these devices, while illustrating how to harden them against water exposure.